


Until the Sun Rises

by Lord Nyoka (SilverofSouls)



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, Werewolf!Danny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 07:52:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2805074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverofSouls/pseuds/Lord%20Nyoka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny takes on the role of night watcher to combat Laura’s nightmares, and discovers that the human isn’t the only one having problems with her dreams.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Until the Sun Rises

**Author's Note:**

> For tumblr user serenadequeen and the Carmilla Holidays Exchange.

The first morning that Carmilla entered her room to find an enormous chestnut wolf curled up in the middle of the floor, she was absolutely  _livid_.

Her ineloquently sputtered rage had brought the beast up to all fours as if her paws were attached to springboards, hackles rising and teeth flashing in the instant before recognition kicked in. Laura shot up from the bed, muttering in confusion and turning a bleary-eyed stare in the direction of her roommate.

“You brought the mutt in here without telling me?”

“Carmilla –”

“In  _what universe_ did you think this would be okay?” she wasn’t even looking at Laura as she spoke, eyes zeroed in on the intrusion, who had lowered her ears in what was clearly a very conscious effort to rein in the instinct to attack.

“I asked Danny to stay,” Laura clarified, voice thick with the sleep that had been disturbed. “I’ve been having the nightmares again, and, well, I don’t want to fall asleep in an empty room. And you’re always gone at night, so…”

Carmilla tore her gaze away from the werewolf on the floor to meet her roommate’s hesitant gaze. She had expected annoyance, anger, indignation…anything but an honest display of vulnerability from the girl who so adamantly resisted protection. Her eyes took in the dark circles under the small girl’s eyes, the lines of exhaustion etched into her features. The realization that she had just rudely woke her up from what was likely the best sleep she’d had in at least a week gave the vampire pause.

A harsh retort caught in her throat as she turned to look back at Danny, now in the process of turning, one barely-human arm reaching for a blanket to quickly cover her nudity as the last of her fur receded. She gave the vampire a tired look, lips pressed into a hard line as she sat up. Despite Laura’s words, there was no expression of victory on her face, only a stoic determination that sat uneasily in Carmilla’s chest. This would be much easier if she had responded with hostility.

“I’m busy at nights,” she found herself muttering, immediately wishing she could take back the feeble excuse – what was she excusing herself for, anyway? Not being around to babysit her human roommate?

“I know,” Laura sighed, lidded eyes threatening to close as she ran a hand through disheveled hair. “That’s why I asked Danny to stay.”

The werewolf finally tore her gaze from Carmilla, worried eyes looking to Laura. “You should go back to sleep,” she whispered, “I can leave, if you want me to. You’re not alone anymore.”

The words send a jolt of shock down Carmilla’s spine. Had she heard correctly? Had the wolf really just offered to leave Laura with the Big Bad Vampire Roommate that she couldn’t stand? She felt a rush of heat to her face when she realized that Danny’s perfectly composed tolerance of her presence contrasted sharply to her own furious, disruptive entrance.

Maybe she wanted that. The look Danny gave her betrayed absolutely nothing, a mask of cold indifference that tipped the vampire’s rage over the edge.

“Stay if you want,” she spat through firmly clenched teeth, giving the dog on the floor a wide berth as she stalked to her own bed and collapsed onto the sheets. “I don’t give a shit. Just fucking give a girl some warning, alright?”

She turned to the wall in a huff, squeezing her eyes shut. A moment of silence dragged on before Laura’s tired voice reached her ears. “Please stay. I feel more comfortable with you around.”

“Alright.”

Carmilla wrapped her fingers around the sheets, threatening to shred them. The dark fury churned inside of her, keeping her awake for several hours before she finally released it long enough to slide into the cold embrace of sleep.

* * *

She should have known better than to trust the dream.

Centuries of reliving stolen moments in midnight carriage rides, gentle touches of a hand on her shoulder, smiles warmer than the rays of the sun she spent so much time hiding from…God, she should have known better, but she fell for it every single time.

Because nothing else mattered when Elle looked at Carmilla – not Mother’s demands, not the fact that she was a predator, supposedly stalking the girl who looked at her as if she was the answer to her prayers, and not the monster she tried so hard to shove aside when in her presence. It didn’t matter whether or not the world was real, only that, for a few fleeting moments, they were together again.

But the spell inevitably broke. A thin trickle of blood would fall from the girl’s radiant smile, followed by another, and another…and soon it was a waterfall, a crimson river that stained her dress while the world pitched itself into darkness, while Carmilla struggled against the cold chains that bound her firmly in place as Mother dragged the girl farther and farther away. No thought was spared for the cries being ripped from the vampire’s chest, the endless demands that Carmilla’s life be taken instead, desperate begging silenced with the finality of the coffin lid closing above her and plunging her world into unforgiving silence.

“ _Carmilla!_ ”

A voice cut through the gloom, and she shot out of the coffin with the speed of a bullet, forehead crashing into a hard forearm that reached out to steady her.

“Whoa, hey, it’s alright, it was a dream,” the voice whispered.

Carmilla felt soothed for all of half a second before the smell of wet earth and pine trees filled her nose and she realized that Laura was not the one calling to her. Dark eyes snapped open to meet crystal blue, a low hiss slipping from her mouth as she scrambled to put as much distance as she could between herself and the werewolf.

Danny backed off immediately, raising both hands into the air and taking two large steps away from the edge of the bed. She had gotten dressed while Carmilla slept, now clad in baggy sweatpants and a Summer Society t-shirt. “Sorry,” she grunted, as if the word took effort to say, “didn’t mean to scare you.”

Carmilla’s eyes darted from her to the empty bed behind her. “Where the hell is Laura?” she spat.

“She left for Journalism about half an hour ago,” Danny replied, slowly lowering her hands.

“Then why the fuck are you still here?” Carmilla asked rudely, chest heaving as she caught her breath, images of Elle’s smile filling with blood still swirling around in her mind.

If she was offended, Danny didn’t show it. “You were tossing in your sleep and whispering, ‘don’t go,’” she explained, “I woke you up when you started screaming.”

“I don’t need you to fucking babysit me.”

“I also wanted to talk to you,” she continued as if she hadn’t been interrupted, “Laura’s been having these dreams a lot. I know you said that you don’t know the cause, that she shouldn’t be having them anymore, but the fact remains that she is.”

Carmilla narrowed her eyes. “And I suppose that’s my fucking fault.”

Danny sighed heavily, and seemed to compose herself for a moment before speaking again. “If you tell me that there’s nothing that you can do about them, that you don’t know why she’s having them, then I believe you,” when she looked back up at Carmilla, her eyes betrayed genuine concern. “Because I know that you would do anything to stop them if you knew you could.”

Carmilla stared up at her, unable to believe what she was hearing. “What the hell is your angle?” she growled dangerously.

“I’m saying this because you’re going to be seeing a lot of me,” Danny said with confidence, the complete certainty of the statement irking Carmilla more than anything else.

“Am I?”

Danny nodded, shrugging off the rudeness of the question. “For as long as she’ll let me, I will be here.”

That certainly wouldn’t be long, if Carmilla had any say in the matter. “Thought she said she didn’t want you protecting her.”

“She asked me to be here,” Danny pointed out, jaw jutting forward with the ghost of a challenge. “And I look after my friends.”

“Friend? Really? That’s fucking rich, pup.”

“Oh? And are you really in a position to mock me about that?” she fired back, not missing a beat. “I don’t want to be your enemy. I’m not interested in competing with you. I trust you because, no matter how hard you try to hide it, I can tell how you really feel. And this is going to be easier if we’re friends.”

“You  _really_ don’t understand that word, do you?” Carmilla shook her head slowly.

“Better than you,” Danny countered, turning on her heel to leave before the vampire could retaliate.

* * *

If there was one thing that Danny Lawrence was grateful for, it was her ability to run on barely any sleep.

What rest she got took the form of scattered naps that were inevitably interrupted by the urge to check on the girl whose bed she slept beside. She always did so as quietly as possible, easing herself up into a sitting position to briefly examine Laura’s forehead for any signs of trembling or worry lines.

Nine times out of ten, she felt Carmilla’s eyes on her in the darkness, twin orbs gleaming like tiny mirrors as they followed her every move. It was a glare that was so wholly out of place, full of alertness that she was clearly battling against in her attempt to conform to a human sleeping schedule, an indirect challenge of Danny’s presence. For all her intelligence, Laura was somehow completely oblivious to the silent war that Carmilla had declared.

Danny, for her part, pretended not to notice. She had been wholly annoyed, at first. After the first couple of near-sleepless nights, she mused on the vampire’s thought process from her post on the hardwood floor, reversing their positions in her mind. Were she the one curled up on the bed with an enormous black panther spread out on the floor between her and Laura, periodically rising to check on the small human girl…she understood the scrutiny, on some level. The desire to protect burned strong in both of them.

Snark had long been abandoned in favor of silent, suspicious glares, surely a miracle granted to Danny from the goddess. Be it from lack of sleep or a desire to compete with the werewolf for the honor of Least Intrusive Roommate, she could not be sure, though she could certainly suspect.

It was for Laura’s sake that she avoided antagonizing the brooding creature of the night, but she did eventually develop a peculiar habit. The nightly ritual of checking Laura’s pulse acquired an extra step as she turned to meet the watchful eyes across the room, nodding with the wordless communication that all was well. The first few times she did this, she was answered only with a sharp exhalation of annoyance, but by the third night of their strange vigil, Carmilla had begun to nod back.

When Laura stirred, babbling and thrashing at invisible demons, she was always there. Whatever tension this had instinctively caused Danny had faded into some sort of vague gratefulness for the extra pair of hands and eyes.

After enough time had passed to firmly cement the routine, Danny woke to the familiar sound of frightened whimpers.

She rose onto four paws immediately, leaning over Laura’s bed, ready to offer whatever comfort was necessary, confused when she was greeted by the sight of a perfect still and peaceful sleeping girl.

The noises increased in volume as she turned to face the far bed, keen eyes picking out the sight of Carmilla tossing and turning in the vice grip of her sheet, pale skin shining brighter than normal in the moonlight.

Danny hesitated. The sight of the struggle called to her with surprising force, an instinct that was difficult to ignore given that Carmilla sounded almost like a frightened pup crying out in the darkness. It was ultimately strong enough to overtake the urge telling her to stay away. Carmilla was vulnerable, and in her experience, that equated a very high likelihood of retaliation if she woke up and found an enormous wolf too close for her liking. But Danny was strong enough to withstand any physical attack, even from her, and she simply could not ignore such an obvious need for comfort. Silently, she padded over to the distressed vampire.

“Don’t go…don’t leave me…” Carmilla muttered softly in her sleep, face twisted into a mask of pure terror that looked so utterly human that it took the breath from Danny’s lungs. Slowly, she lowered her huge head onto Carmilla’s chest, careful to rest it in such a way that would keep most of the weight off of her. She let out a low rumble, letting it vibrate her jaw to combat the frantic beats of a heart –  _a heart?_  – that was threatening to burst from her chest.

To her surprise, the pair of searching hands that came to tangle in the fur of her neck were pulling her  _closer,_ clinging to her as if she were a rock amidst a rushing current that was threatening to sweep her under. Danny was careful to hold still, allowing the hold that was not entirely comfortable but clearly not hostile.

“ _Help me,_ ” Carmilla sobbed, eyes squeezing shut even tighter as the trembling increased, and Danny half wished that she could offer words of comfort. All she could manage was the soothing rumble. She couldn’t imagine what such an old, caustic vampire would possibly dream of that could reduce her to a pitifully crying toddler…until the next broken whisper reached her ears.

“ _Please, I don’t want to die_ …”

_Oh._

Well then.

It was a jolting realization – the fact that Carmilla had once been human, had once had life violently ripped away at such a young age. It was so easy to forget, thanks to the brick wall that she kept between her and everyone around her. But then, how much could Danny really begrudge her that wall, given that she had quite literally been murdered?

She hadn’t expected to feel pity, nor to nuzzle closer into Carmilla’s chest, allowing the vampire to steal her warmth as the thundering heart rate slowed to normal human pace, then slowed further to a weak thump, and finally faded into nothing. Her grip on the werewolf’s fur did eventually loosen, but she made no attempt to pull away entirely for quite a long time.

When she finally did let go to roll over onto her side, Danny silently withdrew. The purpose of her vigil became clearer to her as she let her eyes wander back and forth between the sleeping forms on either side of her.

She lowered herself back down to the hardwood floor, wrapping her tail around her long legs until it reached the tip of her nose, but sleep did not come for several hours as she paid double attention to the breathing patterns of the room’s inhabitants, wishing she could battle the invisible assailants.

* * *

After centuries of reliving a thousand versions of the same set of dreams, Carmilla had no idea how to react when the nature of her deepest held, most terrifying nightmare began to change.

She conceived of Death as a not-quite-physical entity, one that freely inhabited the negative space surrounding Mother, draining the energy from all it came in contact with. She felt its touches in every caress Mother gave her. Cold. Empty. Formless. Inevitable. Death consumed her, darkening every brilliant hue, even as her changing eyes perceived color with a depth that her human gaze had been unable to approach. Yet she submitted to its grip, baring her soul against her wish. She held only the naive whisper of a hope that it would not destroy her with its gravity.

But the script had changed.

When the wolf first appeared, it was larger than anything she had ever seen, a towering wall of chestnut fur that rivaled a skyscraper. She had been quite literally awed by the sight. Surrounding the beast in a brilliant beam of light, Life reached out and touched her with all the force of a butterfly alighting on a flower petal. It was the briefest of contact, but one that was scorching hot, setting fire to the shadows that clung to every surface like living creatures. Carmilla fell to her knees as a paw larger than a semi-truck came crashing down on top of Mother, stamping out the darkness in one fell swoop.

The earthquake rumbled from its epicenter, throwing her off balance, the ground itself pulsing with light and vitality and the familiar scent of wet earth and pine needles as she opened her eyes to meet Danny’s.

The wolf was staring at her from her post on the floor with an unreadable expression, eyes glittering like beacons in the darkness, tiny fractions of the light that had touched her in her dreams. Carmilla wanted to speak. The look was too pointed to ignore, powerful enough to send a shiver down her spine as she became acutely aware of the feeling that she was being watched to her very soul. It was enough to stun her into silence before she summoned the energy to rise from the crumpled sheets, tearing out of the room with bare feet, consumed with the sudden need to feed and run, if only to escape those eyes.

* * *

“I’m not sure if I should stay,” Danny reluctantly admitted to Laura once the sun had risen hours later.

Laura’s brow creased at the words, and she looked up from her work on the desk with a deep frown. “What do you mean?”

“At nights,” she clarified, curling her toes and hugging her knees to her chest, sinking into the sheets of Laura’s bed as she spoke. “I don’t think Carmilla appreciates it.”

Laura did not attempt to disguise her shock. “First of all, when has she ever appreciated it? Second of all, since when do you care?”

Danny hesitated, wondering how much to speak of. The vampire certainly wasn’t too keen on respecting privacy, and Laura  _was_ her roommate, so…

“She has nightmares, too,” she whispered after a brief internal debate. “And I’m…not sure how my presence might be affecting that.”

Laura seemed to mull over that piece of information for awhile. “Is there any merit to that whole vampire-versus-werewolf thing?”

“Old grudges, a mutual disapproval for each other’s lifestyles,” Danny offered with a hand wave. “Not the sort of ‘blood feud’ thing that terrible movies might lead you to believe, at least not among the majority of packs.”

“Then where exactly is this coming from all of a sudden? She almost seems to be used to you.”

Before Danny could answer, the door opened, and in stalked the subject of their conversation with an oversize cushion hefted over her shoulder.

“Delivery,” she said by way of greeting, plopping the cushion down onto the floor on her way to the fridge.

Danny uncurled herself and scrambled to the edge of the bed, peering down at the cushion with wide eyes. “Is that a  _dog bed?”_  she asked incredulously.

“Yup,” Carmilla grunted as she reached into the fridge and pulled out a carton of soy milk, not bothering with the finer points of civilization, like glassware, as she pressed it to her lips and tilted her head back to drink.

“Are you serious?” she let an edge of annoyance creep into her tone at the unspoken implication.

“Hey, you can be offended by it, or you can suck it up and accept what I’m quite certain will be more comfortable than that damn floor,” she countered, putting away the carton before flopping onto her own bed and turning to face the wall, one hand groping for a book.

Laura turned to give Danny a pointed stare, a smile tugging at the edge of her lips as she shrugged. “Did that answer your question?”

* * *

There was nothing.

Void. Emptiness.

Decades had passed. Centuries. Millennia. How long had it been? How many years had she been sealed in the Earth? How long had she been buried? Forgotten?

Did it even matter?

In her weak moments she prayed to every deity that she knew wouldn’t listen for death. Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, reincarnation…any form of release would be a blessing. An eternity of being spit roasted by Satan himself was preferable to eons of staring into the void, unable to move, with only her wretched thoughts for company.

Until the scratching started.

Carmilla thought that she had imagined it at first, that her brain had fabricated a sound to fill the endless nothingness that she was trapped in. It sounded as if it came from miles away, traveling through a thick expanse of packed earth before reaching her ears. But as she listened, zeroing in on the noise with rapt attention, she realized that it was drawing closer.

_Scraaaape, scraaape…_

In a past life, she might have felt fear, but now she felt nothing but desperation. She struggled against the void, dimly aware of the feeling of four walls pressed close to her, of dried blood that caked every inch of her skin. Her mouth fell open to scream, to give any indication of her location, but no sound came out. Not once in the centuries since the start of her undeath had she asked for help, not since the day Mother had twisted her life into some mocking shadow of what it once had been. But as the scratches grew closer still, frantic scrapes just beyond the sealed door of her tomb, she found herself silently begging whatever unknown entity lay beyond.

_CRACK!_

The seal on the lid broke and pulled away to let in a stream of light so bright that she was certain she would melt just from the sheer intensity of it. Even closing her eyes made no difference, only changed the hue from blinding white to blinding crimson as she threw her hands up to blot out the sunlight.

She became aware of more sensations as her eyes adjusted. Heavy panting accompanied warm breath, followed by the touch of something wet against her face. The wetness withdrew for a moment, only to be replaced with powerful arms that slid beneath her, lifting her into the air as if she weighed nothing more than a feather. She reached blindly for her savior, wrapping her arms around tightly muscle shoulders and burying her face into a thick curtain of hair. After several long moments of being carried, her eyelids slowly fluttered open.

The hair in her face was long and flaming red, in wild disarray. The strong arms that held her belonged to a girl who towered over her, face set in a grim mask of determination as she stared forward. She wore only a thin layer of dirt and a halo of light that seemed to pulse with a life of its own. The sight of her stirred some memory deep within Carmilla, as if she had glimpsed a blurry photo of her face centuries ago…had she known her before the void had claimed her? She couldn’t remember, but she suddenly wanted desperately to know.

She brought a trembling, blood-soaked hand to rest on a dirt-smeared cheek, bringing a pair of concerned eyes to her face. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw the perfect shade of blue that was brighter than the sky itself. “Thank you,” she choked out, voice thick and hoarse from lack of use.

The girl’s only response was a smile fit to rival the rising sun. She stopped walking, and Carmilla tore her eyes away from the piercing gaze long enough to note her surroundings. They had reach the bank of a wide river that flowed lazily through a meadow. The water was crystal clear, every single detail of the rocky surface below visible in sharp relief.

The girl stepped into the water, up to her waist, and slowly lowered Carmilla beneath the surface. The vampire tensed instinctively right before making contact, anticipating cold that did not come. The water was warm, warmer than it had any right to be, but she wasn’t about to complain, a soft moan falling from her lips at the sensation of the river caressing her parched skin. Swirls of brown and crimson fanned out around them as the dirt and blood washed off, carried away by the current.

She submerged completely, eyes opening beneath the surface to find that it was far deeper than it had appeared. It seemed almost like rocky pool now, all signs of a current absent as the girl submerged beside her, hair fanning out around her like fire. Carmilla reached out to her again, and the hands met her halfway, pulling her back to rest against a muscled, warm body.

Her stomach gurgled then, seeming to echo in the space around them as they floated, and the girl smirked at the noise. She couldn’t remember the last time she had eaten, sustained only by the layer of blood coating her skin. Wordlessly, the girl tilted her head back, a stream of bubbles rising from her lips to the surface as she offered her neck to the starving vampire.

Carmilla hesitated for only a moment before leaning forward and plunging her fangs into the exposed skin. The girl didn’t even flinch at the motion, hands lifting up to tangle in her hair, gently smoothing out the tangles as Carmilla fed. The blood that poured into her mouth was rich and savory, more satisfying than she could have ever imagined. She clamped her jaw tight over the small wound she had created, unwilling to lose a single drop of the feast to the water that surrounded them.

She had no idea how long they floated there, wrapped in each other, too far gone to notice that neither of them seemed to require any air. The blood flowed freely into her mouth, never seeming to end, and as she drank she found that her thirst for the girl only increased. Her hands began to wander of their own accord, caressing the toned arms that held her, sliding up to her shoulders and down to her breasts, pausing for an ample amount of time when the girl’s hold on her tightened just slightly. She continued her journey down across the planes of her abs, stroking the muscle there before finally reaching the patch of thick red curls between the girl’s legs. They opened gently, permission as well as a wordless request, and Carmilla smiled against her neck before sliding a finger across the girl’s slick folds.

A low rumble sounded from within the girl’s chest as her hands traveled down the slope of Carmilla’s back, resting over the smooth curve of her ass. She threw her head back, sending the fan of red hair rippling like flames as her mouth fell open in a noiseless moan. A searching finger slipped inside of her, desperately craving warmth.

Carmilla curled her finger, feeling the heat envelope her as the light returned, beginning as a soft glow that radiated from the girl’s perfect skin, forming a gentle halo that through light into the farthest crags of the pool they were submerged in. She reached deeper, stroking slick walls as the light grew brighter, prompting her to shut her eyes and clench her jaw tighter.

It grew brighter still, burning the backs of Carmilla’s eyelids. She squeezed them hard for a moment before opening them only to be greeted by the sight of the bare, bland ceiling above her, the feeling of her heart racing in her chest as the light from the rising sun filtered through the window and landed directly onto her face.

She bolted up with a start, disturbing the wolf on the floor who was watching her with concern, slowly rising onto four paws. Danny didn’t make it to a standing position before Carmilla had bolted out of the room.

**Author's Note:**

> I do hope I did this justice, I've never read a fic for this pairing that wasn't angry lust/hate-fucking of some sort (I myself have written a few, heh). I ended up really deviating from what I had planned but I'm pleased with the results. Hope you enjoyed!


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